About
酚 is a modern phono-semantic compound created specifically for translating Western chemical terminology. Its left component is the alcohol radical 酉, commonly used in chemistry to denote compounds with hydroxyl groups, such as alcohols. The right component 分, meaning "to divide", functions solely as a phonetic element, providing the pronunciation "fen". This character was coined to represent phenols, compounds where a hydroxyl group is bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon ring. As a modern scientific invention, it has no ancient etymological roots, historical semantic shifts, or everyday usage, remaining confined to chemical terminology.